Then Again, If You Need A Map To Tell You Where To Look, Maybe Brooklyn’s Not Exactly Right For You

The Brooklyn Paper reports that real estate powerhouse the Corcoran Group is being accused of housing discrimination:

In a report released Tuesday, a coalition of 220 fair housing organizations charged Corcoran with ignoring black clients, offering more detailed financial options and incentives to white home-seekers and directing these white clients to white neighborhoods.

A “gentrification map” is a key piece of evidence in the National Fair Housing Alliance’s federal discrimination complaint filed this week with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“This racial steering tactic is reminiscent of discriminatory conduct from the 1970s,” said Shanna Smith, president of NFHA. “Then, real-estate agents would [trigger] white flight by showing . . . where an African-American family had bought a house. The twist here is that the agent used a map to tell whites where they should [move] to.”

The map was uncovered in a sting operation at Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office on Montague Street.

Four white investigators posing as yuppie homebuyers were flashed the doctored street map — complete with hand-drawn boxes and red arrows identifying neighborhoods considered to be “changing” for the better as well as established enclaves of young professionals.

A Corcoran Group employee directed the undercover agents to Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights and majority-black Prospect Heights, which fell in to the category of “changing.”

Four black investigators, posing as buppies, weren’t shown the map.

. . .

In a statement, the company said it condemned the conduct alleged by NFHA and would conduct an internal review of the individual agents involved.

The question is what investigators did to pose as yuppies . . . that would have been a fun one to plan!